To test the X-Wing we did our normal routine. First we measured the temperature of the laptop after running the Everest Burn-in test (CPU+Memory+HDD) and the 3DMark 06 (GPU) at the same time. In all cases, the temperatures were logged by the Everest software. Then we set the laptop on the cooler with the fan turned off, set to auto and finally at its full speed (manual set) in order to witness how each setting affects the cooling performance. The results are available in the table below. For your comparison, we have included the results we measured with another notebook cooler, the Akasa Libra:

X-Wing R1 cooler

Akasa Libra cooler

No cooler

Set on the pad, fan disabled

Set on the pad +Auto fan speed

Set on the pad+ full fan speed

CPU

63.7

63.6

63.6

62.8

63.4

Motherboard

63.7

63.6

63.6

62.8

63.4

CPU core #1

57.4

57.5

57.4

56.3

57.3

CPU core #2

59.9

59.9

59.8

58.5

59.3

GPU

56.2

55.7

55.7

54.9

55.4

HDD

35.6

35.3

35.9

34.8

35.3

As it seems, cooling down our Vaio SR19 laptop was kinda hard. Without any cooler, the laptop is already cool enough. Placing the laptop upon the cooler didn't make any significant difference.. Powering up the Glacialtech X-Wing R1 helped a little bit, with the GPU temperature to drop by almost a 1 degree C. It seems that running the X-Wing R1 product at full speed is the best option in our case.

We have noticed that due to the pad's design, small-sized notebooks (like our Sony Vaio SR19) won't be benefited much. It's size does not allow it to firmly fit on the pad's surface. As a result, the produced heat cannot be efficiently dissipated below the laptop. We believe that 14.4/15.4 or larger products would get a much performance with the specific cooler. As you can see from the above results, the Akasa Libra product was also not very efficient when we tested it with the specific notebook. On the other hand, a bigger fan in the X-Wing cooler would certainly help a lot.

- Conclusion

The Glacialtech X-Wing R1 is a laptop cooler is a different notebook cooling pad than we are used to seeing. The product has some really cool features that we have not seen on other notebook cooling pads like the multimedia keys, temperature display, and the fact that all of the keys are touch-sensitive. Glacialtech has designed a feature-rich cooler and some details such as the controllable fan speed make the difference. The pad was also very quiet for the category so you using the pad will not be disturbing at all. All of these features really set this notebook cooling pad apart from other ones out there.

On the other hand, the cooling performance of the device was very poor, at least in our tests. With the fans turned all the way up we only saw a 1 degree difference at load temperature. As we previously mentioned, this poor performance could be attributed to the fact that the pad's design does not allow laptops smaller that 14" to be firmly placed on its surface, making it difficult for the fan to dissipate the produced heat. We had also noticed a similar behavior with another cooling pad, the Akasa Libra.

We feel that the Glacialtech X-Wing R1 is a very stylish and feature-rich cooling pad for laptop users, as long as laptop is larger than 15.4 inches. If GlacialTech equip the pad with a larger more powerful fan, the X-Wing R1 could really be a great notebook cooling solution for your precious mobile computer.